1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording/reproducing apparatus using a recording medium such as a high-density optical disk, and an updating method of management information for an optical disk medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to deal with increased density of an optical disk, highly-reliable management of a medium has been required. Defect management information that shows, for each loaded optical disk, at which position a defect is present on a disk and at which position a spare area for the defect position is present on the disk is essential information when recording or reproducing information. Values of various conditions, for example, a recording power and the like at the time of recording and reproducing information on/from a loaded optical disk are stored, and the stored values are read and set at the time of starting a recording/reproducing operation, thereby improving the efficiency in setup of the operation. Defect management areas (hereinafter, abbreviated as DMAs) are provided at plural areas on a disk so that the defect management information is multi-recorded in each area.
For example, a DVD-RAM disk has four defect management areas (DMA1 to DMA2) provided thereon, and two of which are arranged on the inner circumferential side of the optical disk and the other two of which are arranged on the outer circumferential side of the optical disk (For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-245723).
In a case of a high-density disk with large-capacity that is called a DVR (Data and Video Recording), two defect management areas (DMA1, DMA2) on the inner circumferential side of the disk are arranged so as to be separated from each other in the radius direction of the disk while sandwiching a test writing area (Optimum Power Control Area). With this arrangement, the two defect management areas (DMA1, DMA2) are prevented from being damaged at the same time due to a defect, a flaw and the like, thereby improving the reliability of the DMA. Further, in the case where the number of times of updates is recorded in a DDS (Disc Definition Structure) of the defect management area and the number reaches a threshold limit of the number of times of overwrites, the recording area of the defect management information is changed, thereby increasing the reliability of recording/reproducing information on/from the DMA. The number of times of updates stored in the DDSs are compared with each other so as to determine which DMA data is valid (For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-14088).